If all the World were Paper
If all the World were Paper
Original Text
Edward F. Rimbault, "Could we with ink," Notes and Queries 229 (March 18, 1854): 256.
1If all the world were paper,
2 And all the sea were ink;
3If all the trees were bread and cheese,
4 How should we do for drink?
5If all the world were sand'o,
6 Oh then what should we lack'o,
7If as they say there were no clay,
8 How should we take tobacco?
9If all our vessels ran'a,
10 If none but has a crack'a;
11If Spanish apes ate all the grapes,
12 How should we do for sack'a?
13If friars had no bald pates,
14 Nor nuns had no dark cloisters;
15If all the seas were beans and pease,
16 How should we do for oysters?
17If there had been no projects,
18 Nor none that did great wrongs;
19If fiddlers shall turn players all,
20 How should we do for songs?
21If all things were eternal,
22 And nothing their end bringing;
23If this should be, then how should we
24 Here make an end of singing?
Publication Start Year
1640
Publication Notes
Wits Recreations (1640) titles this nursery rhyme "Interrogativa Cantilena.".
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011
Rhyme
Form